Thoughts On The Kevin Youkilis Signing

(Ahh the good old days.  Let 'em go, people)

I made it pretty clear last week which side of the fence I was on when reports of the Yankees offering Kevin Youkilis the 1-year/$12 mil deal first came out.  I had my reasons and I don't think any of them were misguided, even if my way of expressing them (which was meant to be humorous, by the way) did get me an attempted morality lesson and possible challenge to a fight in the TYA comments section.  But barring something major coming up in his physical that would negate the agreement, Kevin Youkilis is going to be a Yankee next season and he's going to be the Opening Day third baseman.

That's the reality, snd there's nothing that I or anybody else who was anti-Youkilis can do about it.  So rather than bitch and moan about how much better of an option Mark Reynolds would have been, or complain about how I can't/won't root for him because of who his former team is, I'd like to break this move down logically and calmly now that I've had a night and a day to digest it.

Opening Day Lineup Still Needs Some Work

(Let's see Joe whip up a winning lineup with these ingredients.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

So it's almost 2 weeks before Christmas.  The GM Meetings are over, the Winter Meetings are over, and it's getting close to hibernation time for most teams during the down period of the MLB offseason.  The Yankees have made a few moves, all of them re-signing the key missing parts of their pitching staff, but the position player portion of the roster is still in shambles.  I know this is a theme I've been slowly beating to death since the offseason really kicked into gear, and things have gotten better since the first time I did something like this, but with the events that took place this week it's a theme that is still very prevalent and a situation that's actually gotten worse.

The Yankees will be without Alex Rodriguez until at least mid-summer, they've officially lost Russell Martin as their starting catcher, they still don't have a starting right fielder, and the bench is really nothing more than a collection of backup catchers.  If the regular season started tomorrow, and the Yankees had to field a lineup with what they've got right now, it would be an ugly scene.

Possible Non-Tender Targets

(I could dig this guy.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

Friday night's non-tender deadline has come and past, with not a whole lot of surprises or drama.  The Yankees, as expected, tendered contracts to all 5 of their Major League regulars who were arbitration eligible and also offered a deal to Jayson Nix, who was then designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Mariano Rivera after agreeing to a Triple-A assignment and invite to camp if he cleared waivers.

But that still leaves the open spots in right field and now catcher for 2013, as well as a pretty empty bench right now, and there were some players who were non-tendered by their clubs who could be viable fill-in options as part of the "1-year only" plan to build next season's roster.  After the jump, the 5 players who the Yankees could take a look at.